
!A#s 



<g*M«iS&to»i>ML 



&SMa*s 






QL 

^6X 




LIBRARY OF CONGRESS. 

\> A^ 

SfcqtJl^ ©tqajtt# !f *-. 

Shelf .iEi„i 



UNITED STATES OF AMER T 1A. 





ANT LION PIT. (Page 33.) 



SOIV1B 



CURIOUS INSECTS. 



A Few Brief Sketches. 



_-N 



By Noble M; Eberhart, B. S., Ph. D. 

ft f * 



COPXISIG-HTBD. 



CHICAGO: 

The Clark & Longley Co, 

1888. 



"^ ■ 









&% 



To tf]e parents who have so willingly aided me in 
my studies, this tittle volume is affection- 
ately dedicated by 

THE &UTHOR. 



CONTENTS, 



PAGE. 

The Praying Mantis . - 7 

The Burying Beetle 13 

The Death-Watch 16 

Seventeen-year Locusts, etc. 19 

Plant Lice 26 

The Ant Lion 33 

The Death's-Head Moth 43 

Insects That Give Light 4S 




Iptroduetiop. 




This little work is not intended as a 
scientific treatise on the subjects included, 
but merely as an account of the habits and 
principal characteristics of the insects men- 
tioned ; written with the view of attracting 
the interest of people in general to the vast 
fields of knowledge and interesting re- 
search lying in the study of Entomology. 

N. M. E. 



THE PRAYING MANTIS. 

The peculiar physical characteristics of 
this insect have given rise to many weird 
superstitions. 

A number of marvelous stories are 
told about them by early writers. Says 
Moufifet: "They are called mantes, that 
is, fortune-tellers ; either because by their 
coming they do show the spring to be at 
hand, so Anacreon, the poet, sang; or 
else they foretell death and famine, 
as Caelius, the scholiast of Theocritus, 
writes ; or, lastly, because it always holds 
up its forefeet like hands, praying, as it 
were, after the manner of their diviners, 
who, in that gesture, did pour out their 



8 
supplications to their gods. So divine 
a creature is this esteemed, that if a 
childe aske the way to such a place, she 
will stretch out one of her feet and show 
him the right way, and seldom or never 
misse. As she resernbleth these diviners 
in the elevation of her hands, so also, in 
likeness of motion, for they do not sport 
themselves as others do, nor leap, nor 
play; but walking softly, she returns her 
modestly, and showes forth a kind of ma- 
ture gravity.' ' 

The eggs of the mantis are deposited 
in an orange-colored case, having a 
length of about two inches, and com- 
posed of a substance resembling fine 
parchment. 

In the interior of this mass (which is 
ordinarily fastened to the stem of some 



9 
plant), the eggs themselves are arranged 
in a double row. 

The young mantes bear a strong re- 
semblance to ants, both in form of body 
and in agility of movement. 

The cannibal propensities are very 
strong in the mantis. Rosel relates that 
having a number of young mantes con- 
fined in a glass case, whenever, in their 
efforts to escape, they encountered one 
of their brothers, a combat was the im- 
mediate result, the victor always devour- 
ing his vanquished foe. 

Rosel, thinking to stop this cannibal- 
ism, placed a number of ants in the case 
for food ; but he had no sooner done so 
than he perceived his mistake, for the 
little mantes, although they had never 
seen an ant before, fled in wild alarm, 



10 
knowing by some strange intuition that 
the ants were their enemies. Later ob- 
servations show that ants even fall upon 
the full-grown mantes and destroy them. 

The Chinese, taking advantage of the 
fighting tendencies of these insects, keep 
them for this purpose, just as people of 
this country do game-cocks. 

The fly is their principal article of 
food, and the way it is caught by the 
mantis is thus described by an Eng- 
lish author : — "It raises its body, and 
lifting up and joining its two forefeet, it 
remains in the attitude of one praying. 
When the mantis espies a fly, even at a 
distance, it never takes off its bright 
green eye from its destined booty. The 
slightest variation in the movement of 
the fly is met by a corresponding one of 



11 

the eye, without moving the head of the 
mantis. If the fly should not approach 
sufficiently near, or if, on the contrary, 
it should betray any signs of removing 
altogether, the mantis drags its body so 
cautiously towards its prey as to be al- 
most imperceptible to the observer ; it 
then stretches itself as near as possible to 
the fly, without absolutely shifting its 
place ; and when it has approached suf- 
ficiently near, the long claws, hitherto 
raised and folded up, are thrown upon 
the victim with the rapidity of light- 
ning." 

Rosel claims that the mantis will cap- 
ture a fly at a distance of four inches. 

After the fly is secured it is held up 
between the forefeet of the mantis, and 
devoured; it being stated that a male 



12 
will eat four flies daily, and a female six. 
The superstitious Hottentots of South 
Africa, look upon a species found there 
as an omen of good luck, especially if 
the insect happens to alight upon one of 
them. 



THE BUBYING BEETLE. 

Nearly everyone is familiar with this 
industrious beetle, and many have, per- 
haps, watched its operations. 

Noticing that dead moles and other 
small animals laid on the loose ground 
soon disappeared, M. Gleditsch con- 
cluded to investigate the cause. Accord- 
ingly he placed a mole in the garden, 
and on the morning of the third day 
found it buried some three inches below 
the surface. Though wondering why 
this service was performed for the dead 
mole, yet as he saw only four beetles 
under the carcass he re-buried it, and 
in six days found it overrun with 



14 
maggots. It was not until then that the 
thought struck him that these maggots 
were the offspring of the beetles he had 
seen, and that they performed the burial 
rites in order to provide a place to de- 
posit their eggs, where the young when 
hatched would have food for their nour- 
ishment. 

Continuing his observations, M. Gle- 
ditsch placed four of these beetles under 
a glass case with two dead frogs. One 
pair buried the first frog in twelve hours, 
and on the third day the second one was 
similarly disposed of. The professor 
then gave them a dead linnet, and a pair 
of the beetles set to work to bury it. 
They pushed out the dirt from beneath 
the body. Then the male drove the 
female away and worked alone for about 



15 

five hours, turning the bird around in a 
more convenient position, and occasion- 
ally mounting the body to tread it down. 
After resting for an hour it proceeded as 
before, alternately excavating away the 
earth, and pulling the bird from below, 
and then treading it down from above. It 
was buried by the end of the third day. In 
fifty days the four beetles had buried four 
frogs, three small birds, two fishes, one 
mole, two grasshoppers, the entrails of a 
fish, and two morsels of the lungs of an ox. 
Referring to our own note-book, we 
find the record of two of these beetles 
that dragged a dead field mouse some 
eighteen inches, to a deserted cray-fish's 
hole, and then pulled the carcass down 
into the hole, or rather one pulled while 
the other pushed from behind. 



THE DEATH-WATCH. 

" The wether's bell 
Before the drooping flock tolled forth the knell, 
The solemn death-watch clicked the hour she died!" 

This little insect has probably been 
the source of more terror than anything 
in nature of equal size, for it is only about 
a quarter of an inch in length. 

In appearance it generally bears a 
striking resemblance to the decayed 
wood in which it lives. 

The superstitious idea has become 
firmly ingrained in the minds of the un- 
educated masses that the ticking of this 
strange little insect is portentive of the 
death of some member of the family. 



17 
It is this error which undoubtedly 
gave rise to the following from Swift : 

" A woodworm 
That lies in old wood, like a hare in her form, 
With teeth or with claw, it will bite or will scratch ; 
And chamber-maids christen this worm a death- 
watch, 
Because, like a watch, it always cries click: 
Then wo be to those in the house who are sick — 
For sure as a gun, they would give up the ghost 
If the maggot cries click, when it scratches the post ; 
But a kettle of scalding hot water injected, 
Infallibly cures the timber affected; 
The omen is broken, the danger is over, 
The maggot will die and the sick will recover." 

The ticking of these insects is made 
by striking the head forcibly against 
whatever the insect is reposing upon, 
and the click is really only the call of 
the insect for its mate. 

A Mr. Derham confined two of these 



18 
little fellows in a box, and carried on a 
number of experiments with them. 

He found the number of beats to be 
generally between seven and eleven, 
and also found that by rapping on the 
table with a nail he could obtain an im- 
mediate response from one of the insects. 

They abound in old houses, where 
they may frequently be heard during 
the day, but such is the thrilling dis- 
tinctness of their call at night that the 
vulgar superstition is that they are heard 
3nly at midnight. 



SEVENTEEN- YEAR LOCUSTS, ETC. 

This peculiar insect has always at- 
tracted considerable attention, because 
of the various stories connected with it. 
Properly speaking, it should not be called 
a seventeen-year locust, but a seventeen- 
year cicada. However, the former name 
has become so firmly established that it 
is almost impossible to do away with it in 
common parlance. 

It is hatched as a little grub from the 
egg which the mother has deposited on 
the twig of a tree, and drops to the 
ground, where it buries into the sap 
roots of the tree. 

Here it remains for nearly seventeen 



20 
years, subsisting on the sap which it 
sucks up through its beak-like mouth. 

When the seventeen years are nearly 
elapsed, it goes into the pupa, or transi- 
tory state, between the worm and the adult 
insect. This pupa stage lasts but a few 
days. As the time approaches for the 
change into the winged state, the pupa 
ascends to the surface, making a cylin- 
drical tunnel, which is firmly cemented, 
and, to render it still more water-proof, 
is covered with a peculiar varnish. 

It has been observed that where the 
ground is low or wet the pupa has ex- 
tended its chamber some five or six 
inches above ground, but with an open- 
ing at the surface. This enables it to 
keep out of reach of all moisture. When 
the time for transition comes it backs 



21 

down below the surface and emerges 
through the opening, attaching itself to 
the most convenient object. 

In a short time the skin splits along 
the back, the limbs are withdrawn, and 
in ten minutes the perfect cicada has 
freed itself from the pupa-case, which is 
left hanging where it was. 

This transformation usually occurs be- 
tween the hours of six and nine in the 
afternoon. 

After first emerging the body is soft 
and white, except two spots on the front 
part of the thorax. In a short time, 
however, ( generally less than an hour), 
the wings develop, and the natural colors 
begin to make their appearance. 

The female is armed at the extremity 
of her abdomen with a sword-like ovi- 



22 
positor, or sheath, through which the 
eggs are discharged. When laying her 
eggs she makes a slit in the twig with 
this and deposits the eggs in pairs. It is 
this sharp ovipositor which has given 
rise to the popular superstition that 
these insects sting, but which is utterly- 
false. 

It has been estimated that the female 
cicada deposits about five hundred eggs ; 
but such are the vicissitudes attendant 
upon the long underground life of the 
larva that it is supposed that only about 
one pair out of the two hundred and 
fifty reaches maturity. 

Beneath the wings of the male, on the 
first ring of the abdomen, is a " musi- 
cal" instrument which has been likened 
by some to a kettle-drum, and by others 



23 

to a violin, both similes being very apt. 
The noise produced by this arrangement 
is the call of the male for his spouse. 

Doubtless all are familiar with the 
story that you can find your initials on 
the wings of this strange insect, and many 
of you have perhaps tried it. If so, you 
found near the apex of each wing a 
thickening of the veins, making a well 
defined letter W, out of which it is very 
easy to form a number of others with 
a little aid from the imagination. 

Another story is that this W stands 
for war, while a third, evidently of 
oriental origin, is that Pharaoh's initials 
are to be found. 

The ancient Greeks were very fond of 
the music of the cicadas, and kept them 
in cages on this account, giving the 



24 

same name to the sound of the harp and 
the chirp of the insect. 

We quote the following from an Eng- 
lish writer :— 

" The symbol for music was a cicada 
sitting on a harp, which is said to have 
been founded on the following tale. 

Two rival musicians, Enomus and 
Ariston, were alternately contending for 
the prize; when one of them had the 
misfortune to break a string of his lyre, 
a cicada immediately settled on his in- 
strument, and supplied the defective 
string so efficiently by the melody of its 
own notes that the favorite candidate 
obtained the victory." 

So much attached were the Athe- 
nians to these insects that they wore 
golden images of them in their hair, and 



25 

used to boast that they, themselves, as 
well as the cicadas, were terras filii, (sons 
of the earth). 

The fact of the cicada's music being; 
confined to the male alone, gave rise to 
the following couplet of Xenorchus, the 
Rhodian poet : 

" Happy the cicadas' lives, 
Since they all have voiceless wives" 

A Chinese species yields a white wax, 
which is highly valued for candles, etc. 



PLANT LICE. 

Have you ever noticed some of the 
leaves on your rose-bush, curled or rolled 




FEMALE PLANT LOUSE. 

tip in an odd manner, as if shrinking 
from the sunlight ? 

, Noticing this, did you ever endeavor 
to satisfy your curiosity by investigating 



27 
the cause of this apparent diffidence ? If 
you had taken the trouble to unroll one 
of these leaves you would have found a 
number of minute insects sheltered by 
its encircling folds. So small, indeed, 
are these insects that no adequate idea 
of their shape can be ascertained except 
by resorting to your microscope. Under 
the glass these little individuals assume 
definite proportions, and their bodies are 
found to be flask-shaped, with two little 
tubes proj ecting from the posterior portion 
of the abdomen. 

Now, these two little tubes are of great 
importance, and insure careful treatment 
to many an aphis (as these little plant- 
lice are called) ; for from these tubes 
exudes a sweet fluid secreted by the 
stomach, which is highly prized by ants; 



28 
and to secure which, the ants tenderly 
watch over and care for the little aphi- 
dae. They carry them out in the morn- 
ing and place them on the leaves of some 
juicy plant, and then in the evening they 
bring them back to their own nests. 

In return for this kindness, the aphi- 
dae, when caressed by the antennae, or 
"feelers," of the ant, emit this sweet 
fluid, which is greedily devoured by that 
industrious insect. This fact has caused 
the plant-lice to be frequently spoken of 
as "ants' cows." 

They gain their livelihood from the 
juices of plants, which they suck up, and 
it is this depriving of the leaf of a part 
of its sap that causes it to curl up, thus 
protecting its enemy, and returning good 
for evil. 



29 

But the aphis is not without its ene- 
mies, for the little " lady bugs " ask for 
no daintier morsel than a nice, juicy 
plant-louse. Beside these, the larva of a 
species of lace-winged-fly has such a 
fondness for a diet of plant-lice that it 
has received the appellation of the aphis 
lion. 

In Europe, gardeners frequently take 
the pains of hunting up a number of 
these aphis lions, which they place on 
their infested bushes, and as a result the 
plants are soon freed from plant-lice. 

Now, the plant-louse differs from 
nearly all other insects in one respect. 

It does not lay an egg from which are 
hatched little grubs that finally develop 
into mature insects, but instead, the 
females in the fall lay eggs which remain 



30 
over winter, and early in the spring 
hatch out, when it is found that, without 
a single exception, all are females. 

Now comes the curious part, for these 
individuals bring forth living young, 
which, too, are only females, and are 
wingless. Generation number two fol- 
lows the example of its predecessor, and 
so on until the approach of autumn, 
when a brood of perfect males and 
females is brought forth. The females 
of this brood lay eggs which remain 
over winter and undergo the same pro- 
cess as before. 

M. Fougard says that the ordinary 
aphis produces ten generations during a 
year, and that each insect also brings 
forth about ten young ones, as seen in 
the following table : 



31 

Gen. Produce. 

1st I Aphis 

2nd ioo Aphidae 

3rd 10,000 " 

4th 1,000,000 

5th 100,000,000 " 

6th 10,000,000,000 " 

7th 1 ,000,000,000,000 " 

8th 100,000,000,000,000 " 

9th. . . 10,000,000,000,000,000 " 
10th . 1,000,000,000,000,000,000 " 

So that from one aphis in the spring" 
would come one quintillion in the fall, 
were it not for the many enemies to pre- 
vent this. 

A striking example of this enormous 
increase is the following from Prof. Hux- 
ley : 

" I will assume that an aphis weighs 
one one-thousandth of a grain, which 



32 
is under the mark ; a quintillion will on 
this estimate weigh a quadrillion of 
grains. He is a very stout man who 
weighs two million grains ; consequently 
the tenth brood alone, if all its members 
survive the perils to which they are ex- 
posed, contains more substance than five 
hundred million stout men; to say the 
least, more than the whole population of 
China." 



THE ANT-LION. 

It is now our privilege to consider one 
of the most curious and interesting in- 
sects ever created. 

The ant-lion is the larva of a neu- 
ropterous (nerve-winged) insect, much 
resembling the dragon-fly, but having 
broader and softer wings. 

The larva is a very clumsy insect, with 
a broad, flat body and enormous jaws ; 
moreover, its legs are so constructed 
that it can only walk backwards, and 
that very slowly. 

It lives in sandy districts, and is car- 
nivorous in habits, subsisting principally 
on ants, which it catches alive. 



34 

This latter statement seems improba- 
ble when you look at the clumsy ant- 
lion and compare it with the agile ant. 
But what it is unable to accomplish by 
direct pursuit it is able to achieve by 
strategy. 

It proceeds to make a funnel-shaped 
excavation in the sand, which serves the 
two-fold purpose of a nest and a pit-fall 
in which to catch its food. 

It is very interesting to watch it in the 
construction of its habitation. 

Selecting a suitable spot, it takes a 
few grains of sand on its head and jaws 
and by a quick backward jerk throws 
them far enough to prevent the possibili- 
ty of their forming a ridge around the pit. 

It proceeds, or rather recedes, ( for it 
goes backwards) in a circle, when it 



35 

turns and makes another circle, gradual- 
ly narrowing it, until it assumes the 
shape of a hollow, inverted cone. 

The little insect, throughout its entire 
labors exhibits an unrivalled example of 
industry and perseverance. 

If a pebble is encountered it is removed 
in a very skillful manner. 

This has been so weli described in a 
little work entitled " The Natural History 
of Insects/' that we cannot do better 
than quote it : 

" It frequently happens that small 
stones impede the progress of its labors ; 
these are all, one by one, placed upon 
its head, and jerked beyond the outer 
margin of the excavation. But when 
arrived near the bottom, it sometimes 
encounters a pebble too large to be re- 



36 
moved even by this process, its head not 
having sufficient breadth and strength 
to bear so bulky and so heavy a sub- 
stance ; while the hole is too deep to 
admit of its being projected over the 
margin. In this dilemma the little en- 
gineer is not destitute of resources, A 
new mode of proceeding is adopted, 
suitable to the difficulty which the insect 
has to overcome. By a series of the most 
ingenious movements, it contrives to lift 
the pebble upon its back, were it is kept 
in a steady position by means of the seg- 
ments which compose that part. Having 
thus secured the pebble from the chance 
of falling, the indefatigable laborer res- 
olutely walks, tail forwards, up the slope 
of the excavation, and deposites its 
burden on the outside. When the stone 



37 
to be removed happens to be round, the 
insect's task becomes more arduous and 
difficult: in this emergency, the pro- 
ceedings of the little ant-lion cannot fail 
to excite the deepest sympathy. With 
incredible exertion it lifts the pebble on 
its back; it then commences its retro- 
grade ascent up the slope of the den ; 
but at every step of its progress, the 
load may be seen to totter to one side or 
the other; but the expert porter elevates 
the segments of its back in order to restore 
the balance. It sometimes occurs, that, 
when it has very nearly reached the top 
of the excavation, a false step causes it 
to stumble ; in this unlucky case, all its 
efforts are frustrated, and the stone rolls 
headlong to the bottom. Mortified, but 
not despairing, the unwearied ant-lion 



38 

returns to the charge ; again places the 
stone on its back, and again ascends the 
sloping side, artfully availing itself of 
the channel which had been formed by 
the rolling stone — the sides of this 
channel frequently serving to support the 
load. Throughout the whole progress 
of the work, the insect shows itself a 
most expert engineer." 

M. Bonnet tells of one ant-lion, which 
instead of removing the stone in the 
above manner, simply forced it into the 
wall of the nest — an exceedingly ingen- 
ious way of disposing of it. 

When, at length, the pit is completed, 
the ant-lion takes its place at the bottom, 
entirely buried in the sand, except its 
huge jaws, which are spread out in a 
horizontal direction. 



39 

The unlucky ant pauses on the brink, 
and in so doing is lost, for the loose sand 
gives way beneath its feet, and it falls to 
the bottom. Perchance, however, it may 
gain a footing and seemingly be about to 
escape ; but no, the ant-lion immediately 
throws up a few grains of sand, which 
bring the unfortunate ant down with them. 

Seizing its victim in its jaws, the ant- 
lion holds it above its head while it sucks 
the juices from its body, after which the 
carcass is thrown out and the nest re- 
paired. 

So much of an epicure is it that if a 
number of ants are thrown into the nest, 
it kills them all before selecting the one 
on which to make its repast. 

One in the possession of Mr. Emerton 
fasted from October to March, a feat 



40 
which rather leaves Dr. Tanner in the 
shade. 

It will devour almost any species of 
insect, except its own, but in no case will 
it touch one that it itself has not killed. 

Reaumur deprived a bee of its wings 
and dropped it into the nest of an ant-lion. 
This insect seized the irritated bee by 
the back, and held it up in the air, so 
that it could not use its sting. At every 
effort the bee desperately made, the ant- 
lion would dash it violently against the 
side of the pit, until the exhausted bee 
finally yielded up its life, and the ant- 
lion feasted upon it at leisure. 

When the ant-lion misses its food for 
sometime it decides that the locality is a 
poor one, and proceeds to seek another, 
where it constructs a new nest. 



41 

The ant-lion continues in this larva 
state for about two years, when it be- 
comes a pupa. As this change approaches, 
it buries itself in the sand, and forms a 
globular cocoon of fine grains of sand 
cemented together with a viscid exuda- 
tion from the pores of its skin, and lined 
with silken threads of its own spinning. 

At the proper time it bursts this case 
and emerges. Says an English writer : 

" Its four wings which were contracted 
in little folds, and whose dimensions did 
not exceed the sixth part of an inch in 
the film that sheathed them, begin to ex- 
pand, and in the space of two minutes 
shoot into a greater length than the whole 
body. In a word the ravenous and 
malignant ant-lion assumes the form of 
a large and brilliant fly, much resembling 



42 
the Dragon-fly, which, after it has for 
some time continued immovable and ap- 
parently astonished at the prospect of 
nature, flutters its wings and enjoys a 
liberty unknown to it in its former ob- 
scure condition." 




DEATH'S-HEAD MOTH. 



THE DEATH'S-HEAD MOTH, 

The death's-head moth has always 
been an object of interest, and many- 
strange superstitions have gathered about 
it. 

It is a large, dark-colored moth, with 
yellow markings, measuring about five 
inches from tip to tip of its extended 
wings. 

On the thorax are pale markings 
which represent a hideous death's-head, 
whence the name of the insect. 

The caterpillar is greenish yellow, 
with black spots on the back, and trans- 
verse lines of blue and white. It is our 
common potato, or tomato worm. 



45 

It made its first appearance in Europe 
a short time before the outbreak of the 
French Revolution, having been im- 
ported into that country with its native 
plant, the potato. 

It was not long before it was found 
that this ominous-looking insect de- 
stroyed and devastated the hives of the 
bees, feeding on the honey it plundered 
from them. 

It swooped down in the dead of 
night, making havoc of the hive, and re- 
sistance was in vain as the stings of the 
bees could not penetrate the soft downy 
covering of the moth. 

The owners of bees tried various means 
to prevent the onslaught of this terrible 
enemy; but all in vain, and at last the 
bees solved the problem themselves. 



46 

They built a wall of wax with little 
loopholes in it, sufficiently large for their 
own ingress and egress, but not large 
enough to admit their enemy. 

One of the strange characteristics of 
this peculiar insect is a plaintive squeak- 
ing sound which it emits, the manner of 
doing so, having as yet no satisfactory . 
explanation. 

On account of the piratical markings 
on its thorax it has always been regarded 
with superstitious dislike and aversion. 

In Mauritius an idea is prevalent that 
it sheds a dust from its wings that causes 
immediate blindness if it falls upon a 
person. For this reason when one oi 
them enters a habitation a scene of con- 
sternation ensues. 

The pupa is quite interesting in its 



47 
form, resembling a jug in its shape. The 
long handle is commonly supposed to be 
the tail of the insect, but is in reality the 
tongue-case. This latter organ — the 
tongue — is of an extraordinary length to 
enable it to reach after the honey in 
flowers having a deep corolla. A Mad- 
agascar species has a tongue nine and a 
quarter inches in length. 

The pupa is frequently found in dig- 
ging in ground where potatoes or toma- 
toes have been planted. 



INSECTS THAT GIVE LIGHT. 

"Among the choked lanes, on every hedge 

The glow- worm lights his gems; and through the 

dark 
A moving radiance twinkles." — Thornton. 

The glow worm is usually found along 
the edges of paths and woods; the females 
are much more abundant than the males, 
and deposit their eggs on the grass and 
weeds during the months of June and 
July. 

There are eleven rings or segments in 
the body of the worm, from the latter 
ones of which a phosphorescent light is 
capable of being emitted. This light 
looks like a couple of bright spots, ii 
carefully examined. 



49 

In an old pamphlet we find the follow- 
ing account of the cleanliness of the 
glow-worm, which we herewith quote, 
although not vouching for any of the 
statements made : 

"Having found the larva, when looki ng 
for objects of natural history in the 
neighborhood of Dartford, I placed it in 
my box and thinking it might be a veg- 
etable feeder, I put some of the oak bark, 
moss, fern, and honeysuckle along with it. 

Into the same box I afterward put 
several specimens of small snails, with 
pellucid shells, which I found in the 
same locality. When, on inspecting it 
the next day, I found that the vegetable 
substances I had placed with it were not 
touched, and that the snails had glued 
themselves to the top of the box. After 



50 

examining the insect for some time, I 
noticed that it made some very peculiar 
movements with its tail, in the manner 
of the common earwig and the devil's 
coach-horse, by bending up its tail over 
its back. There appeared to be some- 
thing so uncommon in its movements* 
that my curiosity was excited to observe 
them more minutely ; and, as the creature 
was not at all timid, I could easily ob- 
serve it through a glass of some power. 
The caudal instrument, I discovered by 
this means, consists of a double row of 
cartilaginous rays, disposed in a circle, 
one row within the other, and what was 
most singular, these were retractile in a 
curious manner, to the horns of the snail. 
The rays were united by a soft, moist, 
gelatinous membrane, but so as to be in- 



51 
dividually extensile; one or two being 
frequently stretched beyond the line of 
the others. It was not long before I 
convinced myself that this singular in- 
strument was employed by the insect for 
cleaning itself, and it would have been 
difficult to devise anything more effectual 
for the purpose, though its actions were 
different from all others of this kind with 
which I was acquainted, inasmuch as it 
is operated by suction, and not as a comb, 
a brush, or a wiper. It was moreover fur- 
nished in the interior with a sort of pocket 
of a funnel shape, formed by the converg- 
ing rays, into which was collected the dirt, 
etc., from off the back of the insect." 

In about twenty or twenty-one months 
the larvae pupate, and some three weeks 
later they change into perfect insects. 



